It's all your fault, Jenny!!!

A while ago, I started a document that was my memories of the circus, written after the fact. I only got 2 1/2 cities written (Those of us on the show count our time by cities, as in "that happened 3 cities ago, right?" or "I bought these pants in Lexington." Weeks and months mean little on tour, memories are jogged by cities and arenas) but the file was already 3 pages long. Anyway, your prompting will, hopefully, get me to write more. Anyway, here's what I wrote about Philadelphia:
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Philadelphia is where I joined the circus. It was sort of a training by fire – I just jumped right in and started working. I worked a few days, learning some things about the show, but right now I can’t remember exactly what. Then I went home to Baltimore for Easter, left my car at my parents’ house, took the train back to Philly and off I went. Easter Sunday was closing for the show in Philly, so by the time I arrived back at the First Union Arena (which may have still been Core States Arena back then), the load out was in full swing. I just followed Steve around, basically, and did what he needed to have done. I was informed that I couldn’t go on the load out floor without a hard hat, so I found one and jumped in. Steve had me checking the casual labor personnel – there were performers who got paid extra to help with load in and load out, but we had to make sure they showed up each week. I learned quite a few names that way.
When the load out in the arena was over, we walked over to the flats – at that time in Philly we were able to use a siding at the far end of the parking lot to park the whole train. I think that’s not true anymore. Unfortunately, there was another train stopped on the tracks closer to the arena, so the loading of the train was delayed until we could get that train moved and get the rest of the wagons and people across the tracks.
I wasn’t really clear on exactly what was going on at the time. All I knew is that I was not going to drive that truck and trailer that I was living in by myself to Providence, RI, so Steve was going to drive while I rode along. Which of course meant that we had Foster (Steve’s dog) with us on the drive as well. Also, we took Stashek, the floor boss, who was at that point filling in on pre-rig for Kazik, the TD. Kazik was off the unit because he was having some surgery to repair his leg where it had gotten broken (I think by an elephant) years before.
So, at about 1am we finally left Philly for Providence and the Providence Civic Center. I really thought we were going to crash several times because Steve sure looked to me like he was falling asleep at the wheel. It was light out by the time we pulled into the arena parking lot. It was pretty small, and I didn’t even know how much we were going to cram in there.
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So that's what I wrote. Here's some explanation of things that might not have been clear. When I joined the show, I was assigned to live in a travel trailer so that I could beat the train to the next city and set up the main outside lot. The most interesting thing about it was that it had been the tall man's trailer on the previous tour. Ringling Bros had had it custom made for him, and then when he left after his 2-year contract was up, they recycled it for the Assistant Ops Manager on the Blue Unit - me. This tends to be a story that people like to hear about.
My bed was 9 feet long. I had one box that I brought with me to the show that lived at the foot of my bed and never moved until I moved out of that trailer. I don't even remember what was in it, I just know I didn't have to unpack it.
In the bathroom, there was a mirror that had been put in for the tall man's wife (who was short, shorter than me) that worked just fine for me. Then there was a mirror for him. When I started dating my husband and he spent a few weeks with me in the trailer, he realized that the wife mirror was too short and the tall man mirror was too tall for a normal 6' man. hee hee
I couldn't reach the shower head in the shower. If I wanted to adjust the stream a different direction I had to knock it around with a shampoo bottle.
I had to stand on the bed to reach most of the clothing storage areas in the bedroom.
There were shelves in the cabinets in the kitchen area that I NEVER used because I couldn't reach them.
Another quirk about the trailer that had nothing to do with the tall man was that there was a range top, but no oven. So I bought a toaster oven and did all of my oven-type cooking in that. The range top was a flat top stove, though, and I fell in love with it. Once we left the circus and bought a house, I insisted on a flat top range. It's the best thing ever (at least in the world of appliances)

Okay, that's enough for now. Tomorrow, Providence, RI. And more explanation of trains, sidings, my truck and trailer, pre-rig, and anything else you didn't quite get.